Re: [PATCH v3 5/6] ext4: introduce direct IO write path using iomap infrastructure

Matthew Bobrowski
2019-09-20T13:24:46Z

On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 02:06:13AM -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 08:37:41AM +1000, Matthew Bobrowski wrote:
> > > Independent of the error return issue you probably want to split
> > > modifying ext4_write_checks into a separate preparation patch.
> >
> > Providing that there's no objections to introducing a possible performance
> > change with this separate preparation patch (overhead of calling
> > file_remove_privs/file_update_time twice), then I have no issues in doing so.
>
> Well, we should avoid calling it twice. But what caught my eye is that
> the buffered I/O path also called this function, so we are changing it as
> well here. If that actually is safe (I didn't review these bits carefully
> and don't know ext4 that well) the overall refactoring of the write
> flow might belong into a separate prep patch (that is not relying
> on ->direct_IO, the checks changes, etc).

Yeah, no. Revisiting this again now and trying to implement the
ext4_write_checks() modifications as a pre-patch is a nightmare so to
speak. This is purely due to the way that ext4_file_write_iter() is currently
written and how both the current buffered I/O and direct I/O paths traverse
through and make use of it.

If anything, the changes applied to ext4_write_checks() should be a separate
patch that comes *after* the refactoring of the buffered and direct I/O write
flow. However, even then, there'd be code that we essentially introduce in the
write flow changes and then subsequently removed after the fact. Providing
that's OK, then sure, I can put this within a separate patch.

--<M>--